i was kinda thinking of buying it. In a week or so. But as it happens -- no chance. Ah well. "special edition" it is.

And i reiterate the general opinion that dividing your clientbase to those who bought cheap version and special version is a bad idea.

I kinda bummed right now. I really like you guys, and you gave endless hours of entertainment during breaks with your freeware version, but decisions like these...

I dunno...

Again, I think it's mostly our fault for not really covering the small difference between the two versions well enough. We'll work out the kinks in the wording over the next few days as we get more thinking behind this whole thing... The biggest element is actually trying to successfully explain how much Desktop Dungeons has changed from the freeware to the full - I mean, we've been expanding this thing on an entirely new codebase for just under a year now and we're just starting to really push content.

The only real way to show everyone is probably just to let you all play it. So that's what we're making happen!

Azeke wrote:Also, am i the only who has trouble reading that font:

The narrowness bothers me too... I've been looking for a wider gothic font actually, if I find a good one I'll slip it into the site quietly.

The different versions don't bother me whatsoever. I'm only waiting to place my preorder until the wording is slightly clarified, so fans can get a better idea of what they will be getting for the "special edition".

I only wish my gaming budget was large enough to afford the exclusive edition! I know there are plenty of other DD fans who will snatch up all the copies though - when I first checked the site there were 3 copies, now there are only 2

dislekcia wrote:Ack, sorry. We had a bug that was holding up the purchase emails, so re-sending those double incremented the Exclusive edition orders. I was trying to figure out where those 6 went all of a sudden!

Hmm, if we actually managed to order this when it wasn't sold out, should we have gotten some kind of confirmation e-mail besides the one from PayPal? I did so about 12 hours ago, back when it had no limit listed (shortly after, it said 20 remaining) and haven't seen anything yet, wondering if I should be worried.

Agbaar wrote:Hmm, if we actually managed to order this when it wasn't sold out, should we have gotten some kind of confirmation e-mail besides the one from PayPal? I did so about 12 hours ago, back when it had no limit listed (shortly after, it said 20 remaining) and haven't seen anything yet, wondering if I should be worried.

The emails have been going out slowly. Some of those super-early emails might have gone missing while we tried out different solutions. Sorry about that.

Just checked and your email address has a confirmed Exclusive Edition! Re-sent your receipt email. Keep posting so that we have lots of inspiration on how to include you in the game

None of the next is considered an ad, just an idea comparison. QCFDesign still rules!

At the Flash games of Artix Entertainment (mostly known from Adventure Quest), each time they release a new game (with free and paid version), they give players a chance to become "Founders". A Founder is someone that becomes a paid member within 1 month of the release day.It will give you something special, unobtainable once the first month has passed. It may include (depending on the game) something simple as a special badge at the character selection screen, a noncombat pet, a donation to Child's Play Charity, a warm and fuzzy feeling of helping the game developers, etc...

I myself am Founder of their game AQWorlds, and therefore I obtain a Platinum baby Dragon. It's a little noncombat pet I'm proud of to have and to show off to everyone in multiplayer.

In the games Artix Entertainment develops, there are also holiday events, like Halloween and Easter. In those events, you can also obtain other noncombat pets (e.g. a walking pumpkin at Halloween), only available in that specific event. After that event ends, it can't be obtained any more. The people that have obtained the said walking pumpkin can be proud of their pet. And while they can't obtain a Platinum baby Dragon anymore, if I didn't do the Halloween event, they can be proud of their unique pet while I can be proud at mine; yet having nothing extra in quantity of pets.

Do you get what I mean?

You can have the premium members/special edition buyers something special, unobtainable by any other means, yet not that special so you can add special items in later of the game other people can be proud of to have and the premium/special edition members don't necessary have.With an additional class, it's difficult to keep players happy. If it's an overpowered class, it's a dead giveaway players want to play the class, even if they first bought the normal game and later suddenly realized they want to play the class but don't want to buy the game again with the price doubled (which they already have once). (So if they pay 15 dollars for the normal game, then wanting the extra class and paying an additional 30 dollars instead of the price difference between the two: a total of 45 dollars for the game (two licenses but they only need one) plus the additional class.)If the class is underpowered (e.g. no special abilities, aka. the "No"-class), hardcore veterans which don't had the money for paying the game at first yet still wanting to play that "neutral" class to see if they can win, even without automated passive abilities, ... same thing.

(I for example can't call myself hardcore, yet I still love the game a lot, paid the premium package with PayPal. A few months ago, I sent 40 euros to my PayPal account, and at times, I bought cheap 5-dollar games on Steam, making my budget lower slowly but steadily. Now my budget was around 20 euros, then I saw Desktop Dungeons pre-order. Insta-buy, since I want to help support the dev's of the game. I bought the 15 dollar edition, making my PayPal budget lower to around 5 euros, and remembering myself to re-fill my PayPal account one of these days.But it could also be I had only 10 euros left and couldn't buy the special edition. Just saying that hardcore supporter is not the same as having the money or ability to buy the special edition, even if they love you that much.)

Ps.: The 75-dollars edition, is part of that money gain for the travel to the E3 or am I wrong?

dislekcia wrote:Of course, we'd feel bad simply charging more for the same game, so we brainstormed and saw what sorts of bonus content we could add as our way of saying thanks. It's literally a few extra things here and there, they'll be mostly joke quests and the special character isn't exactly the most seriously balanced thing in the game - quite the opposite in fact

Wanting to offer the community an option where they can go above and beyond with supporting your studio through monetary means is fine. Wanting to show your gratitude to those people is also a nice thing to do in return. However, once you leave the realm of fluff (soundtracks, name in credits, early beta access, ingame costumes, non combat pets, etc) and start offering actual game content, people take notice (usually not in the good way). So, could you please explain what exactly is included with the extra content? Your response of joke quests goes against what is currently listed on the website:

Joke quests =/= additional kingdom building (please elaborate what this is exactly) and challenging quests. Also, what do you mean in regards to the special character being unbalanced? Are you insinuating an overpowered character to allow the player the ability to steamroll content or a drastically underpowered character not worth his weight in pixels?

For double the price, I would just like clarification on what exactly the additional content entails in Desktop Dungeons. If it really is just a few joke quests and a weakling character, I would recommend updating the store with that information to avoid confusion for the purchasers. If instead the additional content includes a bunch of substantial challenging quests, a powerhouse character and additional kingdom building (still no idea what this is), then that really is tiering content like a big name developer with their collector's editions and zero day DLC. In my opinion, this option could be construed by some as a money grab through withholding content from the base game to generate additional revenue from the Special Edition sales.

DDAnon wrote:Joke quests =/= additional kingdom building (please elaborate what this is exactly) and challenging quests. Also, what do you mean in regards to the special character being unbalanced? Are you insinuating an overpowered character to allow the player the ability to steamroll content or a drastically underpowered character not worth his weight in pixels?

We changed the wording on the pre-order page to try and deal with some of the confusion. It's a little hard to explain what Kingdom Buildings are compared to the current freeware, think of them as multi-state menu buttons with extra sauce. So the building is a place to store the bonus content and also a nice way of distinguishing special edition Kingdoms at a glance, much like Natural Selection 2's black armor.

As far as the character goes, the whole point is to build something entertaining to play that's not critical: If you've played the new class in the freeware, you should be able to relate. It's something different, an extension to the ruleset - we've got a few more ideas of a similar nature.

The version we put on Steam (once we get on there) would be the normal full game, I don't think we'll continue Special Edition sales after the beta is over.